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Why President Obama might choose to lose on guns

The stance is part of a second-term Obama strategy of calculated confrontation. | AP Photo

Senior Senate aides say Obama will have to do what he has never been willing to do before: lobby Democrats one by one, making the case that a perilous vote is the right thing to do. “[He] should engage with the individual senators who are championing different pieces of this legislation, work to move them forward and also reach out personally to those who may be on the fence to make the case for the policy — and if they believe the politics have changed post-Sandy Hook, why they believe that to be the case,” said a senior Democratic staffer involved in deliberations on the gun issue.

That calculus — a possible Senate thumbs-up coupled with a certain House thumbs-down — used to be enough to deter the president from making an all-out push. Obama’s cautious approach to controversy led his administration to slow-walk action on immigration, climate change, labor rights and gun control during his first term, according to advocates who lobbied the administration on those issues and operatives close to the White House.

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“I think the president sees himself as a pragmatist,” former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle told producers of the PBS series “Frontline” for a recent retrospective on the president’s first term. “Let’s get through this. Let’s be pragmatic. Let’s not shoot for the moon and miss. Let’s accomplish as much as we can, but let’s do it with the certainty that we know we can produce by taking this a little more cautiously.”

The most forceful proponent of that get-it-done philosophy was Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff, an arch-pragmatist who demanded his staff strip out any proposal that didn’t stand a chance of passing, and viewed moral victories as a luxury Obama could little afford in a time of economic crisis.

Obama’s liberal allies have often counseled a more confrontational approach, urging him to force up-or-down votes to emphasize the contrast with Republicans and marshal public opinion on his behalf.